Our Handsome Little Man

The Daddy

The Mommy

The Family

Friday, February 25, 2011

Ok so I know I love to earn free stuff and I always wondered if any of these paid email sites, these earn points by searching, earn gifts by shopping, websites were for real. I was a big chicken when it came to all of them but I got brave and I've finally tried quite a few! I have learned which ones are for real and which ones aren't. Now I'm going to post them here for those of you want to know but haven't tried them yet. These are for real. I would never post anything that couldn't be used.

My personal favorite is SWAGBUCKS. This site you join and you get a buck for the toolbar, a buck for doing the daily poll, a buck for looking at the survey page (more if you do the surveys and profiles), 2 bucks for NOSO page which you can skip all the offers, five bucks for watching short videos and some are actually quite interesting, and then you earn bucks for just using their search engine. And occassionally they put out swag codes worth various amounts. Now I use this one all the time I've gotten lots of gift cards and so has my sister! We are addicted lol.

The second one I use a lot is MyPoints and they are similar to swagbucks, but once you hit 30 searches you get 75 points, they send emails to you for surveys that you'll get an automatic 10 points for or 60 if you complete it, you get 5 points for each email offer they send you and click on, and then you can shop online and earn points through them that way (for example I send pictures through one hour photo to the in laws and I earn 2 points for every dollar I spend when I send them through walgreens). I have enough points to get a gift cards but I'm saving for a big one! LOL (Oh and you can refer a friend so send me your email so I can earn 25 more points! LOL)

This one, ZoomBucks, I just started but is similar to the ones above, you get emails and click them
for points, you can do surveys, search through them and do may other offers but its not going too well since all my offers are in Italian! This one will more thanlikely be great in the states so I'll continue to do the email points and what not until then.

InboxDollars is one of those read emails and earn money and you can do offers and earn even more. This one does take a bit longer to earn money before you cash out but its possible. If you sign up now you get a $5 bonus! I am doing this one even though it will take awhile and you can also search 5 searches a day for 5 more cents I know doesn't sound like a lot but it will all add up!

The last one I do is Hit$4Pay and this one you get a $10 sign on bonus and its strictly emails you read. This one will also take awhile to add up but i figure it doesn't hurt to click on them while you're doing the others!

I do recommend having an email just for these if you plan on doing it because you will get a bunch of emails daily from them! I have joined a few others but I'm waiting to see if they're for real! Let me know if you try them out and what you think! Also let me know if you any any others that work! (I know there are a few more that may work but being in Itally they don't work, but I'll save them for future reference!)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I'm getting so excited and sad over baby boys first birthday!! I am planning already and the party isn't until the end of March! We've already bought him a couple cute gifts and so have a few others we know :) I'm making gift boxes instead of gift bags to hand out. Check out the pic below!

These boxes are made out of a 12 x 12 piece of scrapbooking paper and the top is trimmed just a little so it will fit over the bottom. I think they can out super cute and you can even make your own gift boxes. Now I just need to buy the goodies to put in them!

I'm going to attempt to make his cake as well!! I'm totally excited to see if i can do it!! This is what I'm going to use as my guide. I will take pics to show you how mine turns out!

We are doing the party after lunch so I'm going to have a bunch of finger foods. I'm going to order a veggie tray, fruit tray, and a meat and cheese tray. We're (we being me and my friend Justina) are going to making a bunch of goodies and I'm so excited about it! Here are some pics of what they're suppose to look like but we shall see what the final products look like and if you have any ideas let me know!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

If you have ever struggled with getting pregnant or found out that you never could carry a child this song is amazing about our struggle and trials. It really tears me up since it hits so close to home. Although I did feel like this at one time its not currently how I feel anymore I just remember the feelings and memories. I am a mommy now to the most amazing baby boy there is! I do feel truly blessed to have such an amazing child and we are a family finally! I love you baby boy! Thank you God for finding us worthy to raise such an amazing little person!

This song makes me cry like a little baby because I know my own baby boy will feel like this one day. It breaks my heart to think that he may one day believe his birthmom just gave him away but we will go through life trying to let him know how much she truly loved him and what she did was one of the most selfless acts a mother could ever do! This song was written by an adoptee for his birthmom when he finally understood what she did for him. It is one of the most amazing and beautiful songs I have heard. It will seriously bring you to tears!

This is about the making of the song Everything to Me by Mark Schultz (song above). Just simply amazing. Adoption is amazing! I hope my son knows how much both of his moms loved him as he grows :)

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Okay so as many of you know I am slightly obsessed with my baby boys hair. Who would have thought that I'd be so worried about a little man's head of hair! I was really worried that we'd have a girl and I wouldn't know what to do with her head of hair but our little man surprised us when he was born with a full head of hair!! I of course started researching hair care lines and trying to find a good natural baby line and let me tell you that was no easy task! There really are not many baby lines other than like the store brands and I really didn't want to try that stuff since its so drying and not natural.

After many many searches I found this website Curls and they have a baby line with a tear free shampoo called It's A Curl . I was so stinking excited to find this line so of course I had to try it all and ordered all four products from the line. I will say that I'm not crazy about about all the products, I LOVE the Peek-A-Boo Organic Shampoo. It is an all natural, sulfate free, tear free shampoo and does a great job for what I need it to do. The conditioner didn't have enough slip for what I was looking for and is way too expensive for the tiny bottle to cowash with so it probably will not be purchased again in the future. The leave in conditioner I'm not crazy about either. It just wasn't moisturizing enough for our purpose and will not be used again in the future as well. The last product is the Itsy Bitsy Spirals Organic Curl moisturizer and I kinda like this product. It is a great curl reviver for like second day hair. Its a bit pricey for the tiny bottle since you can do the same with a little water and a leave in. I'm not sure if I'll buy this again but I will def be getting the shampoo again! Although this line didn't work great for my baby boys hair doesn't mean it won't be fantastic for another hair type. I would def suggest it to others as an option.

I have also been given a couple different products that you can find in the store. I'm not crazy about them since I prefer the more natural, organic stuff for my little man's hair but I always welcome new free products so of course I tried them! The first I got from a really good friend (people we consider family) and I actually don't mind this product at all. It does have a scent that I'm not crazy about but for the price the product is great and can be used daily Lustrasilk Right On Curl Activator Moisturizer and its actually cheaper in the store, but this is my go to product while I'm waiting on stuff in the mail. The others are a spray and hair dress from soft and precious. I wasn't crazy about the hair dress, its almost like a lotion and just not my cup of tea, but I love the spray. I'd share links but I can't find them! But this can easily be picked up at your local BX or drug store and its reasonably priced and maid specifically for the little ones. These smell clean and powdery fresh but unfortunately this stuff didn't agree with my little man and made his neck break out in a rash, so we will not be using this again. But for those on a budget and whose baby doesn't have sensitive skin go for it!

The newest stuff we're using and so far my favorite is from Darcy's Botanicals (she also has an Etsy Store and sometimes you can find stuff in stock on there that isn't in stock on the website!) and I ordered quite a few things when they had their black Friday sale and everything was 25% which doesn't happen often with her products! The products I bought were:Organic Coconut & Aloe Moisture PuddingPumpkin Seed Moisturizing ConditionerCoconut Lemongrass Transitioning CremeCoconut Cupuacu Butter Natural Hair PomadeNatural Coils Curling Jelly
We have tried almost all of them. The only one that hasn't been used is the pomade because I got it so we could braid his hair which I don't know how to do yet, but boy oh boy does it smell good and I can't wait to use it! I ended up sharing the pumpkin seed conditioner with a friend since I knew there was no way we'd use both leave ins before they went bad. Plus its a bit too girly smelling for my little man and too thick for my hair. We kept the lemon grass one which works amazingly in his hair with either the moisture pudding or the curling jelly on top. This this the firs time I've used products like those so I can't compare them to anything but I will tell you that my boys hair looks amazing! I get compliments all the time and his hair is super moisturized between cowashing and using these products! I don't even have to oil his scalp because his natural oils are enough and I'm not stripping his hair or drying out his scalp! I am honestly pretty proud of how soft and beautiful his hair is coming about! I would highly recommend her products to anyone!!

If you have favorites please share! I'd love to try new things out for my hair or his! I'm a bit of a product junky now!!

Over at Beads, Braids, & Beyond she is having a giveaway for Kinky Curly hair products! Its a giveaway for three of her readers!! How exciting!! I know I am personally going to be trying to win because I have been so wanting to try this line! I have tried a few others and a combination of hair product lines and store bought ones as well and I just would love to try this line! If you'd love a chance to win and to try this line head over to her blog now! You only have until the 18th of this month to enter!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Well baby boy thinks dada lives in the computer while he's away totally cute and sad all at once I know! So sometimes he wants me to pick him up so he can look at the computer and he'll get really close and ask for dada seriously breaks my heart! And he gets sad when he doesn't magically appear so to cheer him up I turn on the webcam so he can chat with the baby in the computer which he thinks is so great! here are a couple pics I was able to get from our little game!

Well the hubby has been tdy and its the first one since we've had our son. Although this def wasn't our first as a couple I am gonna say it was one of the hardest and yet easiest separation so far. Which yeah yeah I know that makes no sense but it was one of our shortest separations therefore not the worst for being longest but one of the hardest because of our baby boy. Now I really didn't think it would have affected baby boy the way that it did because I figured he was young enough to go with the flow but boy was I wrong! He def loves his dada time and dada was a big part of his night time routine which totally threw him off when he left. We are finally adjusting and just in time for dada to return sometime in the near future.

This tdy also felt backwards because normally I'm left alone in the wonderful US and my poor hubby is stuck in some foreign country without his family and well this time the luck SOB got to go the states! Yes, I am jealous! What I wouldn't give to shop at an actual children's store with cute clothes for my little man! Although with the hubby being in the states we were able to get necessary car parts without having to order them and the hubby will be home well before baby boys first birthday woohoo!

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My chihuahua Peanut is turning 6 years old this month! I can't believe I've had my little ball of evil that long already! And yes I said evil! If you know Peanut you know her true evil self that i would trade in for anything in the world! Which means my other baby dogs are getting older too, which makes me super sad :(

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Baby boy is turning 1 in a couple of months can you believe it?!?! I know I sure the hell can't! It seriously doesn't feel like a full year since we brought this amazing little man home! he's grown so much! He is learning things so quickly! I love to just sit and watch him think and you can see the little wheels turning in his head! Oh my oh my you should see the way he eats already as well! I'm terrified to see him as a teenager! I'm going to have to work to just keep food in the fridge! He is such a big boy, he is amazing, smart, beautiful and more than we could have ever asked for in a child! We have been truly blessed with the most amazing son in the world!!!!!

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I have also learned so much about curls and hair thanks to my darling baby boy and my BFF Jen. She is seriously obsessed...in a good way....I think. But my hair pretty much lost its curl while living here in Italy and I just have not known what to do to bring it back. Well my friends I tell ya cowashing is the key! Seriously shampoo is awful for your hair daily. Conditioner has enough cleanser to clean your hair! Who would have thought! We get so obsessed thinking that lather is what makes things clean but boy are we wrong! We're just stripping our hair and making it icky! Oh the damage we have done to our poor poor hair!

Mine and Nathan's hair gets shampooed two times a month and we deep condition afterwards to bring back the moisture and we only do this because of build up from hair products. Otherwise every other day we cowash. First we wash our hair with Vo5 kiwi lime clarifying conditioner and we use this because it doesn't have any silicones, its cheap, and we can use a lot of it (you will seriously feel like your hair is cleaned after this and yet not stripped!). Then afterwards we use another conditioner to actually condition our hair a better one still silicone free. After we get out of the shower we will gently squeeze our hair of some of the excess water but not all of it cause we still want a soaking wet head and then apply a leave in (sometimes just more vo5 but not a ton) and then a hair product like an alcohol free gel or mousse and then wrap our hair in a tshirt not a towel and finish getting ready as the tshirt absorbs the excess water (the tshirt helps with frizz and maintaining moisture who knew?!?!) but there are several other ways to do this as well and each persons does it a little differently. Oh and there are lines like Devacurl that work amazingly as well with a no poo or low poo! I also really want to try kinky curly hair line!

Oh I do have about three book reviews that I'm going to have to post here in the near future and they're all Christian book so keep your eyes out for that as well. I know I know I've been slacking with my posts and all but this was my first experience as a single mom and well it was interesting when little man would throw a fit for dada!

I'll also post another blog about hair product lines we have bought and tried and which our our favorites and why! Oh Check out Darcy's Botanicals as well she has a ton of awesome stuff all natural, organic and a lot of stuff is even vegan!